"If you don't succeed, at least destroy all the evidence which shows
that you tried.........!"

Former Work Address:

University of Bath Department of Mechanical Engineering Claverton Down BATHSomersetBA2 7AYUnited Kingdom

E-mail - <ericdotbrain@btinternetdotcom>
(anti-spam : replace each "dot" with a full stop)

LinkedIn

By way of introduction, I am a Retired Senior Technician having
previously worked for more than twenty three years in the former Thermodynamics
Laboratory (Automotive Group) of the Department
of Mechanical Engineering. until February 2006. This involved working
with students and postgraduates on teaching and research work, mainly concerned
with petrol, diesel or compression-ignition internal combustion engines
and related topics, initially with the late Professor Frank Wallace.
Specific interesting projects that I have helped with over the past
years include the Square Four configuration "low friction" diesel
engine, the series of prototype two-stroke Ford 900cc diesel prototypes,
the excellent Coventry Climax two-stroke H30 diesel, and a prototype small
1.8 diesel with Electronic Unit Injection. Then there was a novel Rotary
Piston engine, some VVT diesels, and at the other end of the thermodynamic
sphere, I worked with Dr. Alex Moulton on his coal-fired, flash boiler
steam engine. In between, of course, there was always plenty to find to
do with the ongoing development of vehicles for the Diesel, LPG, and Solar
power categories of the Shell International Mileage Marathon (now known
as the EcoMarathon,
) and more recently, (and undoubtably the most interesting and rewarding
of all!) the single-seat racing cars for "Team
Bath Racing", the former BURT (Bath University Racing Team)
the University's annual entry in the SAE
Formula Student competition.

I grew up in the haulage world and have always had a "soft spot" for
lorries and engines, having learnt to drive on three Albion Chieftains
before passing my driving test in one of the first hundred pre-production
Rover
75s. Until coming to the University, I was employed for twenty three
years in a large paper and packaging engineers in central Bristol. This
included apprenticeship, the assembly shop, ten years of travelling "on
the road" on service and installation of heavy machinery, and finally I
became an assembly foreman/site supervisor for a 190,000 sq ft stores,
spares, goods inwards, and transport facility on another site three miles
away from the main factory. The firm closed its UK operation in 1982, inevitably
soon after a merger with an American company.

MotoringIn 1963 I fully rebuilt a 1930 Austin
Seven Saloon called "Myrtle"; my wife and I have covered many thousands
of miles in it since then although currently it is still laid-up awaiting
some attention during my retirement. Always having been keen on interesting
cars, I have owned quite a diversity of other makes and models. Some
examples include a series of Austin Healey Sprites and MG's, a Sunbeam
Alpine S2, an AC 2-litre, and a 1930 ohc Morris Minor before moving up
to Volkswagen by way of two Sciroccos Mk1a & Mk2, each characteristically
different but both excellent in their own way.

From 1987 and for fifteen and a half years, I owned a VW Golf Mk2
1.6 Driver bought new. However, time moved on and around Christmas
2002 I was seduced by a newer, sleeker VW, a 1996 Polo 1.4 SE "OpenAir".
The 'three year plan' of keeping it until retirement stretched somewhat
but time took its toll and it has been replaced by higher technology in
the shape of a 2007 SEAT Ibiza 'Sport'. Still a VW under the skin
and so far has exceeded my expectations even though I neither need, or
indeed use, or even pretend to understand the reasoning behind some of
the "gadgets"!! It drives 'nice', goes well; that's all one needs.
Sadly, I have never owned an original VW Beetle, which I consider
equal only to the Austin Seven, still the best all-round cars ever
designed and made.

Having been delighted for over twenty years by two excellent air-cooled
Fiat
126s , (well, they are a sort of "half a Beetle" and a modern day equivalent
of an Austin Seven!) I moved on to a Fiat Cinquecento (which was
really for my wife; she would say "when she was allowed to use it!").
It certainly did everything we needed it to, although in over five years
of ownership the number of other vehicles I actually managed to overtake
had only just reached double figures when I sold it, the majority of those
being electric milk floats!! It had unbelievable carrying capacity, just
to see it loaded with twelve wheels and racing tyres for the University
of Bath Formula Student Racing team, you would know what I mean!!
However it has been replaced by a Seicento Mia. Equally as good
as the Cinquecento but in a different way; as basic as one can get; no
PAS, no gadgets, no electric anything, - not even a radio - and like all
the small Fiats, an absolute delight to drive. It is utterly reliable as
well.

(Fiat Seicento 'Mia')

HobbiesMy main hobby is an all-absorbing interest in Vintage
Stationary Engines , those simple oil-fuelled workhorses of a bygone
era before the days of the National Grid. Over the years since 1970, I
have restored many of these engines for display at shows and rallies, sold
a lot (many with later regrets!) but there are currently around forty in
my collection. Some are very rare types, British, American and French,
even Chinese! but my favourites and my speciality are undoubtedly the "Victorias"
made
from 1906 upto about 1920 by the Bristol
Wagon and Carriage Works Co. Ltd.

I also assisted with Rule of Thumb, an interesting biography of a true engineer of the 'old
school', the late David Curwen, who at 96 was still working! and which
was published in December 2006. I have a chapter in a book
on local families - "The Wyatt and Cox Families of Nempnett Thrubwell
and Chew Stoke ", a private publication by Guy Parfitt.

For many years I have also been compiling an "in-depth" history of the
Somerset former coal mining village in which we live and where my mother's
side of the family has been already traced back to the early 17th century.
It is so "in-depth" in fact, and due to other things cropping up, (the
garden, and occasionally being a volunteer Response Driver for Secret
World Animal Rescue in Somerset,) that I fear this epic may never get
finished.....!

In between, all this there have been a couple of contributions to the
Journal of the British Chelonia Group, one article of which was
recently included in an anthology of chelonian articles entitled "Tortoise
Talk" by Jenny Fensom, published 2008. In 2009 I was interviewed on
camera for a DVD entitled 'Bristol at Work' and more recently made
a podcast of reminicences for the Avon Wildlife Trust's
Folly Farm site

It all keeps the mind active!

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't
matter and those who matter don't mind." Dr Seuss

Links

Chelonia

Chelonia are reptiles with a hard or horny shell - Tortoises for
example!